"We are busy trying to encourage waste pickers to organise themselves so that it can be easy for them to operate and make more money," she said.

South Africa had many waste pickers but only 30 000 were organised, she said.

"We have a number of waste pickers who have organised themselves in a number of Latin American countries. In Brazil, they have started a plastic factory. They melt plastic and sell it," she said.

Among the picketers on Monday was Marlene Cubillo, a waste picker from Costa Rica.

"I am here because I believe that waste pickers play a huge role. We need support so that we can contribute meaningfully in protecting the environment," she said.

Cubillo and her fellow waste pickers formed a company that sells waste material to companies that recycle them.

"We have a place where were sell our stuff. We no longer take our stuff to companies, they come to us," she said.

Through the help of the local municipality, Cubillo and her colleagues managed to get a building where they house all the material they collect.

Vilella described waste pickers as environmentalists, saying they play a huge role in reducing emissions.

"If you recycle you reduce emissions. Recycling means that you reduce mining of raw materials. You also ensure that fewer trees are cut to make paper," she said.

Recycling also reduced the amount of material that was put into landfill sites, Vilella said.

"In other areas, refuse is burnt, which increases pollution."

She said she hoped the establishment of the Green Fund would help waste pickers to grow their business.

Comments

Breedlike - 2011-12-05 15:19

Big up to the waste pickers making a living by pushing their trollies around on refuse days collecting materials to recycle. I hope they can get some more bucks for their effort.

Ingrid - 2011-12-05 15:56

Absolutely agree with you Breedlike

Jonathan - 2011-12-05 16:31

I completely agree! HOwever, I have long had this idea in my head that maybe a bit of popularity can get the message out there! We always see these guys walking around on refuse collection days and then they go through our refuse to find the recyclables to earn a living off what we don't want! Why is it that we as South Africans don't seperate our recylables... If we were to do that then they would spend less time at each bin and be able to collect more and earn more! We coudl feel better by adding to the job market, and recycling more etc! I think what we need to make it more convenient is a seperate recycling bin- like the Ronny bag! But eesentially, people should seperate their rubbish, such a simple act would help immensely!